While Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are both coming off of wins in their last fight, and neither has a clear-cut opponent that is a slam dunk among fans, the chances of them meeting for a super fight are essentially nil. There had been some small rumors Pacquiao may break from Top Rank to pursue a fight with Floyd, but a brand new contract extension through 2016 has ended that talk.
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Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who is currently the chief roadblock to completing that fight, expressed that he never had any doubt Pacman would re-sign. "These guys are like family to me," Arum said. "We had discussed this for a while and I was always sure it would get done. Now that it's been signed and is formally signed, it puts a wrap on it and it feels good to know we'll be together for another two years."
The current plans for Pacquiao moving forward are to offer a November date to Juan Manuel Marquez, with whom Manny has had four grueling fights with already. According to reports, if Marquez declines Arum plans on going after "The Siberian Rocky" Ruslan Provodnikov.
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Provodnikov will be difficult to attain though, as he and Pacquiao both share Freddie Roach as a trainer. Arum has insisted that Pacquiao's new deal in no way bars him from facing Mayweather, and that they really do want the fight to happen.
"I'm not going to worry about something I can't bring to bear," Arum said. "We want to fight him and we're willing to discuss it at any point. There are two ways to go here. One is to do a Mayweather fight with both HBO and Showtime involved, as they did with Lewis-Tyson, as I understand Mayweather is under contract to Showtime through 2015. The companies could come together and put on the show.
"Or, the other alternative is, if Floyd wanted to fight Manny in 2016, he could return to HBO and we could do it there."
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